Has anyone here discussed why the Saudis want this technology?
I tried looking through this thread but couldn't find anything posted about it (sorry if it's been discussed before.)
One of the key objects of their housing policy is to remove the reliance on foreigner workers (
see Saudization). They want more Saudi youth nationals in employment but most Saudis don't want to do manual labor jobs in the construction sector. The shortage is normally fulled by workers from South East Asia.
It seems like they want this technology because it aligns with their goals of Saudization rather then because of the economic benefits it could provide with improved efficiency. So in other words, it's more of a social incentive rather then economic. Their ideal operator I'm guessing would be an educated highly paid Saudi national.
The point I'm making is that in the short term this contract for Fastbrick is likely going to be hugely beneficial as the Saudis will just throw as much money that is needed to meet their goals but in the long term the project might not be economically viable and other first world countries might be put off from this.
It has been suggested here that this MOU is some kind of proof of "market demand" but when you look closer at the reasons behind it, it's not really the case.
Quote from a news article:
Clearly, the key strategic objectives under the Saudi housing plan are to increase productivity and efficiency in the housing construction sector, make the sector increasingly reliant on local content in line with Saudization. (source)
